Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Annalee Newitz Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a New York: Doubleday, 2013Reviewed by Michael PopejoyYes, we have seen blockbuster films, TV shows, and even Science Channel documentaries on the prospects and possibilities of mass extinction of the late, great Planet Earth; and yet, we are still here-so far. Even the History Channel has done episodes on past extinction events with a fearsome emphasis on the next one in line with the tagline; not if it will happen; but, when it will happen. One characteristic of a Mass Event is that no one will be around to say told you so. Even if a series of pre-set video cameras were to be set up around the planet, no one would survive to watch the events unfold.Only a journalist trained in her craftat M.I.T. would have the temerity to offer some plausible technical explanations on how humans can survive a Mass Extinction event and live to tell about it. If anything, she does offer us some glances back on previous events which we did survive the moment of doom so that it can be a reflection today on how we did survive it. So, should we begin building another Ark and begin to beckon all species of critters; two by two to get on board? Of course, given the current health crises that are currently plaguing cruise ships, it is unlikely that the Ark is the best way to go. As Norman O. Brown writes in Life against Death (1959: 305):Utopian speculations...must come back into fashion. They are a way of affirming faith in the possibility of solving problems that seem at the moment insoluble. Today, even the survival of humanity is a utopian hope.This book seems perfect for The Innovation Journal-how would indeed humans survive mass extinction; by its very title, a mass extinction event means all of us are gone-so, who survives and how? The author, Annalee Newitz, takes the long view-we must scatter, adapt and remember. We scatter to new places in the universe; we adapt to whatever environment we might find there, and then remember, how it was-back here, back then; a strange confluence of events that allows human stock to survive an earthly mass extinction event.Newitz makes it pretty clear that we are way overdue for a cataclysmic event and we should be prepared to survive our just deserts; and she believes Homo sapiens have a pretty good chance at survival in the future because we have survived in the past. She identifies episodes in the past when we dodged the bullet and she believes we are in a better position today than ever to dodge the next bullet possibly already speeding our way. In her highly speculative book, she identifies a few times we all came close to buying the farm, yet here we all are, survivors; and adapted and emerged even stronger than before.We are way overdue for a cataclysmic event and we should be prepared to survive our just deserts.How? Well, she examines the potential for underground cities, space elevators, space colonies, new advanced science to stop pandemic disease attacks, to study how other species are finding long term resilience; and, how can humans modify their morphology to choose life over death by changing how we are structured physiologically. Strange stuffhere; but, then that is the lynchpin of radical innovation.Humanity must equip itself scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face what the future holds and what would be demanded and required in order to survive. She never states that it would be easy-only doable. Newitz starts the book with the comment that humanity is at a crossroads. How does she know? She watches the bees. They are devolving into an inexplicable disorganization never seen before. Worker bees just fly offand never come home; adolescent bees wander around the hive aimlessly leaving hive jobs undone. Soon, production stops and eggs die of neglect. Of course, scientists have to call it something; so, why not call it Colony Collapse Disorder. …
Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.
Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction machine sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Le volet Gemma est une étiquette directe du modèle pour chaque travail de la base, lue sur la notice réduite au titre. Le volet Codex est un classifieur appris des 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et calibré sur les taux pondérés de l'échantillon; les champs sans appui suffisant ne portent aucun appel Codex. Le mode candidate est l'union des deux volets; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont pas des étiquettes humaines.
Scores du classifieur distillé par catégorie (deux têtes)
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,002 | 0,005 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,006 | 0,013 |
| Communication savante | 0,009 | 0,013 |
| Science ouverte | 0,001 | 0,005 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,003 | 0,007 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,011 | 0,004 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule source (Gemma direct ou Codex distillé), pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».